Asa Watten

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I am an environmental and energy economist and a post-doc at Yale School of the Environment. My research focuses on the microeconomics of energy and climate innovation: Who adopts new technologies and why? How can the government direct—and speed up—technical change? How do manufacturers and innovators respond to both policy and politics? I use a combination of economic modeling and causal inference to investigate these questions.

Prior to Yale, I was a research fellow at the Environmental Protection Agency where I worked on cars, including light and medium-duty vehicle rule making, and environmental justice questions. I earned my Ph.D. in Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics at Michigan State University. I also hold degrees from The University of Chicago and Carnegie Mellon University. Before graduate school, I ran a small biofuel company1 Details. in Braddock, Pennsylvania.2 Now famously the home of Senator John Fetterman who was mayor at the time.

I am on the job market. Here is my research statment, and my job market paper.

Upcoming/recent presentations

â‹… ASSA 2024 Annual Meeting
â‹… Seminar in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics
â‹… NBER Economics of Energy Use in Transportation [slides]

Research

Peer-reviewed

How is Rooftop Solar Capitalized in Home Prices? With Kenneth Gillingham. R&R at Regional Science and Urban Economics. [Working paper]3 Key figure. Full solar capitalization assumes a high discount rate.

Working papers

Attribute Production and Technical Change in Automobiles. 2023. With Soren Anderson and Gloria Helfand. [NBER]4 Key figure. Estimated technical change is substantially fuel-economy biased (left). Consumer preferences for size, acceleration, and fuel economy have all increaed (right).

Political Risk Reduces Solar Adoption in Renewable Portfolio Standards. 2022.5 Dissertation chapter. [Slides]

Works in progress

Co-adoption of Rooftop Solar and Electric Vehicles. With Bryan Bollinger and Kenneth Gillingham.6 DOE grant funded.

Green vs Grid-independence Messaging: Evidence from a Residential Battery Storage Field Experiment. With Bryan Bollinger and Kenneth Gillingham.7 Ibid.

Against the Wind? Hedonic Estimation Under Attribute Uncertainty.

Contact

asa.watten + yale.edu
Pronunciation: Ace-uh.

Last update: 2023-11-12